These and Those

This will likely be my final note on the Pardes ‘10 Poland Trip. We’ll see.
Much of what I’ve reflected upon has been inspired by R. Levi Cooper, and I’m particularly appreciative of his emphasis on the wealth of Eastern European Jewish culture before the Shoah. We spent much of our final day touring the Jewish [...]

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Auschwitz I (the main Auschwitz camp) has been turned into a museum.
I have photographs of the museum displays at Auschwitz I… photographs of human hair and human hair woven into cloth, of spectacles, frames, and lenses, of tallitot (plural form of tallit), of bowls, plates, and cups, of prosthetic limbs and canes, of suitcases with [...]

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I’ve been busy recently, but that’s not the only reason it’s been taking me so long to write this post.
Last week I had a conversation with a chevruta (study partner) on the subject of how we perceive & relate to the presence of G-d (it was a class assignment). We discussed a difficulty that we [...]

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I credit R. Cooper with presenting our group with a broad, illustrative picture of Jewish life in Poland before (and after) the Shoah in addition to exposing us to & teaching us about Nazi horrors. In my posts, I must necessarily gloss over some of the sites we visited because I lack the time to [...]

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There’s a stunning, old shul (synagogue) in Tikocyn, Poland. It’s made of stone so it remains standing… the wooden synagogues of Polish yesteryear are no longer. The shul currently serves as a museum; the prayers painted upon its walls have been redone by Poles who traced the faded, unfamiliar letters (and made some errors in [...]

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A brief explanation. As David pointed out already, the Poland trip was filled to the brim with learning , walking, and reacting. Getting back to the hotel at midnight, we were expected up and bright eyed by 5:45. As the days went on, it became increasingly difficult to process our thoughts by the [...]

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One of the Poland trip participants wrote an e-mail to her father about the Poland trip, and sent it to me for this Pardes blog… here it is: 
Hi
Poland was an enriching experience. The days were emotionally intense and long
and cold, but Rav Levi Cooper–my Hassidic teacher and main tour guide made sure
the trip was educational [...]

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R. Levi Cooper told us that we should avoid experiencing our tiyul to Poland through our camera lenses. He told us that some people use their cameras as defense mechanisms.
When the tiyul participants volunteered to take responsibilities upon ourselves so that things might run as smoothly as possible, I volunteered to be one of the ‘Poland [...]

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R. Levi Cooper, my Chassidut (Chassidism) teacher, has consistently inspired me with his wisdom. I’ve heard some of my own thoughts echoed back to me in Levi’s particularly articulate and reasoned way, and other insights of his have seeded entirely new contemplations in my mind.
In discussing the history of the Chassidut, RLC taught us that [...]

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